Springfield Falcons owner Charlie Pompea was excited to see his team play in the Calder Cup playoffs, but now must decide how to approach an attendance level that rose, but not to his expectations.The Republican file photo

If this franchise leaves someday, mark down May 10, 2013 as a significant date. On that Friday night, the Falcons drew 2,545 for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Crunch.

The more optimistic view would hold that the 3,906 season attendance average was tantalizingly close to the absolute bottom-line average of 4,000 as described in February by Charles Pompea, the team's owner.

This year represented a 6 percent attendance rise from 2011-12, when the average was 3,659. Crowds increased at the end, when Falcons fans saw their team headed to the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

My own, admittedly biased feeling is this: Don't pull the plug after the 2013-14 season, when the team's lease with the MassMutual Center and the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets is due to expire. The Falcons wonder why the momentum from a division-winning season was so modest, but there is some momentum at last.

A season ticket campaign could finally highlight on-ice success, along with the established aspect of family fun. The Falcons can't wait until the summer of 2014 to make decisions, though, and nothing beyond that is certain.

I am often asked about the problem with attendance. A big problem, I think, is that it's always the story.

Sometime in our lifetimes, Springfield's hockey team was transformed from a sports story to a business story. The score of the game runs secondary to the score of the turnstiles.

Another problem is the misconception that when all of us were young, games at the Coliseum were always packed and Springfield was indeed "Hockeytown, U.S.A.,'' as legendary local writer Sam Pompei called it.

Springfield's AHL franchise has historically averaged crowds in the mid-3,000s, notwithstanding the faulty memories of those who thought the 5,934-seat Coliseum in West Springfield was packed every night.

Here are the numbers: The average attendance for Springfield hockey over the last 50 years is 3,651.

The average for all games played at the Coliseum from 1962 to 1980 (not counting the years in that time the team played at the Civic Center) was 3,959.

The Falcons' attendance since their inception in 1994, all played in downtown Springfield, is 4,131 - better than the Coliseum numbers from the so-called "Golden Age.''

See? The market has not worsened, it just hasn't expanded to the degree it must to keep pace with rising costs and changing market and industry demands.

This season, the Falcons ranked second among 30 AHL teams in winning but 26th in attendance. At one time, the economics of minor league hockey meant crowds in the 3,000s were good enough.

In a league with teams in markets such as Chicago and Houston, it no longer is. It has only been good enough lately because management has done a brilliant job of keeping costs down.

That's a commendable but exhausting way to run a business. It can probably not be sustained forever.

Pompea, much like the similarly named but unrelated Sam Pompei, wants the city to be Hockeytown. Were he not sincere about making a go of it in Springfield, he would have sold or moved the team by now.

It is a league-wide fact of life, with exceptions in only a handful of markets. Some of those, unlike Springfield, puff up the numbers with freebies.

The new talk on the street (though not from the team) is that the MGM Casino people could help shoulder the tab if indeed they wind up operating here. That might happen, but I am uncomfortable with assuming that MGM's arrival will pay for everything and solve all our city's problems, including the hockey team's future.

Whether you support the casino or not, I would caution against looking at any one source - be in MassMutual Financial Group, the Picknelly family, MGM or anyone else - being assumed as the cure-all.

No, Springfield will have to show its support with an offseason drive for season tickets. A lot of fans who tried out the Falcons once or twice in the playoffs, and liked the experience, will be asked to make Springfield hockey a more regular part of their lives.

I hope that happens. So do Charles Pompea, general manager Bruce Landon, and no doubt Sam Pompei, looking down from hockey heaven.

But don't tell the Falcons about the good old days, and don't tell me. Not only were they not as good as we remember, they have become part of the problem for a market that must move forward after decades of running in place.